He sent people throughout the whole city to try on the shoe, and they came to the house where the sheep-brother was.  The stepmother pushed the maiden with the golden locks into the stove, and hid her, and showed only her own daughter.

A cock came up to the threshold and crowed three times, “Cock-a-doodle doo!  The fairest of the fair is in the stove.”  The King’s people brushed the stepmother aside and led the maiden with golden hair from the stove, tried on the shoe, which fitted as though moulded to the foot.

“Now stand up,” said they, “and you shall be a royal bride.”

The maiden put on her golden dress, drove her sheep-brother before her, and went to the castle.  She was married to the King’s son, and seven days and seven nights they feasted.

Again the stepmother took her daughter and went to the castle to visit her stepdaughter, who in spite of all treated her as her mother and invited her into the castle garden.  From the garden they went to the seashore and sat down to rest.  The stepmother said, “Let us bathe in the sea.”  While they were bathing she pushed the wife of the King’s son far out into the water, and a great fish came swimming by and swallowed her.

Meanwhile the stepmother put the golden dress on her own daughter and led her to the royal castle and placed her in the seat where the young wife always sat, covering her face and her head so that no one would know her.

The young wife sat in the fish and heard the voice of the bell-ringer.  She called to him and pleaded:  “Bell-ringer, O bell-ringer, thou hast called the people to church; cross thyself seven times, and I entreat thee, in the name of heaven, go to the prince and say that they must not slaughter my sheep-brother.”

Once, twice the bell-ringer heard this voice and told the King’s son about it.

The King’s son took the bell-ringer with him and went at night to the seashore.  The same voice spoke the same words.  He knew that it was his dear wife that spoke, and drew his sword and ripped open the fish and helped his loved one out.

They went home, and the prince had the stepmother brought to him, and said to her:  “Mother-in-law, tell me what kind of a present you would like:  a horse fed with barley or a knife with a black handle?”

The stepmother answered:  “Let the knife with a black handle pierce the breast of thine enemy; but give me the horse fed with barley.”

The King’s son commanded them to tie the stepmother and her daughter to the tail of a horse, and to hunt them over mountain and rock till nothing was left of them but their ears and a tuft of hair.

After that the King’s son lived happily with his wife and her sheep-brother.  The others were punished and she rejoiced.

And three apples fell down from heaven.

* * * * *

THE YOUTH WHO WOULD NOT TELL HIS DREAM